


Fallout:Steel in the Commonwealth

by SouthernStark19



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 3, Fallout 4
Genre: Depression, F/M, Gen, Graphic, PTSD, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-09
Updated: 2016-10-23
Packaged: 2019-05-30 16:24:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 20,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15100577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SouthernStark19/pseuds/SouthernStark19
Summary: It’s been 10 years since Nathaniel Stark, the Lone Wanderer, had come out of the vault and activated project purity; after the Battle of the Citadel and losing a person he cared deeply for, he decided to retire from adventure but what happens when he accepts a mission to go into the Commonwealth to retrieve the missing Brotherhood of Steel Recon Team and Recon Team Gladius And gets wrapped up in the events of Fallout 4?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a work in progress. Any suggestions and improvements would be appreciated!

Fallout: Steel in the Commonwealth  
Chapter 1  
How long had he been here? Weeks? Months? Years? Who knows, all he was caring about was finishing another shot of whiskey. Nathaniel came to the Commonwealth on orders to locate Recon team Gladius and bring them home, but the search that the brotherhood back in the Capitol had no idea on how difficult it would actually be. Him and the pride had been searching all over the commonwealth; after finally getting out of the glowing sea they started their search at a dump of a prewar neighborhood named so ironically 'sanctuary hills', they did encounter a lone Mr handy named Codsworth who reminded Nathaniel too much of his own personal and faithful Mr Handy Wadsworth. Codsworth told the pride and Nathaniel that he didn't know anything and scurried away, attempting to wax the ancient and damaged floors of one of the prewar houses. They were forced to retreat from the town of Cambridge thanks to a huge pack of feral ghouls prowling the streets, turning up no results from local settlements besides weird looks and cautious glances. Nathaniel decided to lead the pride to the largest settlement in the commonwealth, named diamond city. The city gate was very impressive, a large metal sliding gate, it seemed thick and could possibly take a few direct hits from a fat man, it reminded Nathaniel of the gate at the citadel, he shook off the thought and went to the intercom near the gate "hello and welcome to diamond city, the great green jewel of the commonwealth." A voice said in a not so enthusiastic voice. "Um hello, me and my associates would like entry into your city. We're in need of supplies and some well deserved rest" Nathaniel said in the most nicest voice he could muster. "Ummm you'll have to talk to Mayor McDonough first, and our cities policy is no ghouls, no mutants, and NO Synths" the voice said. 'No ghouls ' Nathaniel remembered the policy well, even after 200 years ghouls were still considered 2nd class citizens or worse then that, it sickened Nathaniel; he had done everything in his power to give equality to the ghouls in the Capitol Republic, but whatever the case he would talk to this mayor and hopefully Nathaniel and the pride could get some well deserved sleep and a full stomach for once. "I'd be happy to talk to your mayor. And don't worry none of us are mutants or ghouls." Nathaniel said, there was a brief moment of silence before the gate began to rise. Nathaniel adjusted himself finding his joints stiff, he had been hiking in his winterized T51 power armor with the pride for months it seemed and he would enjoy a lot more time out of the armor. As the gate opened Nathaniel and the pride were greeted by a small group of heavily armored guards and a very fat man in a three piece suit and a smile that Nathaniel considered almost serpent like. "Hello! Hello! Welcome to Diamond City!! I'm Mayor McDonough!" The mayor said overly enthusiastically walking towards them with open arms. Not even phased by the power armor. Nathaniel steeped forward and met the mayor in the middle, shaking his plump slippery small hand. "Hello Mr Mayor. I'm Nathaniel Stark and these are my traveling companions. Glade, Gallows, Dusk, Kodiak, and Colvin. And we were hoping you'd let us into your city for some food and well needed rest", Nathaniel didn't like this mayor, even in his power armor he felt unsettled in his presence, like a deathclaw in Brahmin skin. "Ahhh! And what a firm grip you have Nathaniel! I never did like power armor. Too clunky and too dangerous for my tastes, no sir, but it appears your group here seems to enjoy it so I won't judge. And for your request to enter the city, you, Nathaniel seem like true Diamond City material! Yes sir! I think it would be a great to have another good, well mannered man in our beloved city; as long as your companions play by the rules and don't shoot up the place we'll be fine!" McDonough said with that same serpent like smile and sent cold chills down Nathaniels spine. "Thank you so much Mr Mayor. And don't worry I'll keep my friends in line while in town." Nathaniel said as nicely and politely as possible, the mayor looked up Nathaniel almost seeing through him and flashed a grin. "Oh me and you are sure to become fast friends Mr Stark! Oh yes! Due please stop by my office one day, and perhaps we could chat about the adventures you've certainly must have had! I'll even share my best bourbon with you." And with that he turned and walked back into the city with the two armed guards, leaving Nathaniel and the pride outside.  
As Nathaniel and the pride walked into the city they were impressed by the looks of it. Nathaniel understood why they called it Diamond City now, the entire city was in the center of a prewar baseball stadium, with small expansions on to the stands and as he surveyed the location he noticed the announcers office at the very top, 'mayors office' he thought to himself, 'of coarse the prick would pick the highest spot in town to lord over everyone'. Colvin, one on Nathaniel's closest friends in the pride, stepped forward and put a power armored hand in Nathaniel's shoulder, "sentinel, mind if me and Gallows go and check the rest of the city out? Maybe we could find Gladius." He said, Nathaniel looked at his old friend, pulling off his own helmet, enjoying the nice smells of noodles and freshly cooked meat and the slight aroma of human shit, it reminded him so much of megaton, "sure Colvin. You and Gallows go and look around. Find anything you can that could help us, but also try and relax a little bit. We're safe for the moment." He flashed Colvin his signature smile that the pride had known since he met them way back. "Yes sir, and we'll try but Gallows over here probably doesn't know how to relax!" Colvin said and began to laugh to himself but not sooner than he said that Gallows stomped up and punched Colvin in the arm, almost sending him into the dirt. And with that Nathaniel and the rest began to laugh uncontrollably, it felt good to laugh, Nathaniel hadn't laughed this hard in a while, not since....; Nathaniel shook off the laughing and went back into officer mode, "okay troops. Get some rest. Get some food. Spend your caps, but if I find any of you bastards drunk I will personally feed you your own testicles! Am I understood?" Colvin straightened himself up and stood as straight as possible in his power armor, along with the rest of the pride, and in unison saluted "SIR YES SIR!" Nathaniel loved the pride, he loved them as if they were his own family, but Sarah once said he needed to be serious every now and then otherwise they'd never take him serious. "Dismissed pride! Ad Victoriam!" Nathaniel slammed his fist into his chest plate, the pride returned the salute and said in unison "ad Victoriam!" And scattered, Colvin and Gallows went down one alley, while Kodiak walked over to the nearest gun shop to repair his laser rifle, dusk nodded at Nathaniel and walked down another alley, one that had a very interesting sign, it read VALENTINES DETECIVE AGENCY, all in bright red neon and from all the way back here it hurt his eyes, 'what a eyesore' Nathaniel thought to himself. He turned down the closest alley and say a very welcoming sign The Dugout Inn, he walked inside and walked to the bar, already attracting very curious looks from the patrons. The barkeep looked at Nathaniel and began to laugh, "Yefim!! Look at this bastard!! Coming into my bar wearing fucking power armor!! Don't worry friend. Nobody is going to shoot you. HAHA! I'd like to see them try though!" The barkeeps accent sounded very different, and then Nathaniel remembered the accent, Russian, like dukov, the barkeep outstretched a shot class "word of advice friend, I would take off that power armor. Otherwise you might break all my fucking shot glasses! My names vadim! And that lazy slob over there is my brother yefim. And welcome to the dug out inn!" Nathaniel nodded and walked over to the far corner of the room and got out of his armor, stretching his aching joints, he pulled out the fusion core and sat down at the bar "there ya go my friend! All better! And might I say you look a hell of a fucking lot scarier outside of that armor! My brother over there is practically pissing himself!" Vadim said cheerily and with so much sarcasm that you could almost swim in it, at that moment yafim seemed to shoot a angry look at vadim and storm out of the bar "I need a smoke..." he said as he stormed out. "You fucking cry baby! I'm sorry about my brother, he doesn't get jokes at times, so what can I get you my friend?" Vadim said and flashed a bright smile to Nathaniel. "Two whiskeys, the whole bottle." Nathaniel said gruffly, he didn't want the pride getting shitfaced but he sure as hell was going to. Welcome to the Commonwealth


	2. Chapter 2

Fallout: Steel in the Commonwealth  
Chapter 2  
Half way through the first bottle he heard the door to the bar open and slam shut. In Nathaniel's experience he knew that could mean one of a few things; 1 it could mean that there's a drunk wanting to get even more shit faced, 2 it could be the said drunk who wants to kick some body's ass, 3 it could be a spurned lover or wife going to drag her man back to their hovel, or perhaps 4 Nathaniel could be caught drinking by one of the pride. Either way he'll deal with it as he went. Luckily it was only a very angry drunk wanting to pick a fight, "you wanna fight...you fucking russian!? I don't care if your the owner I'll kick your as right now!!" He said, Nathaniel rolled his eyes, 'was I ever that drunk? I don't remember. Maybe when Sarah....or when dad.....no. Stop.' He thought to himself. "What about you Mr tough guy!? Wanna fight!! I bet I can kick your ass right here! Right now! I'm not too drunk to break your fucking nose!" The drunk screamed at Nathaniel, vadim tried to get the drunk to leave. "David you drunk bastard! Get the fuck out and stop harassing my customers!" Vadim yelled at the drunk named David. The drunk david glared at Vadim and back at Nathaniel "fuck you, you dirty Russian, do you wanna go?! I'll kick your ass and this asshole with the pip boy right now!!" David said, David shoved Nathaniel knocking him out of his stool and spilling his whiskey bottled all over the bar and ground and not to mention all over himself. He picked himself up and noticed that the whole inn was now watching him and the drunk. Nathaniel stoop up straight and dusted himself off and sat back down on to the stool. "Another bottle Vadim, it appears my last one I ended up wearing." Nathaniel said and flashed a grin at the Russian who in return handed him another bottle and smirked. David seemed to get angrier at the sight of Nathaniel ignoring him and trying to enjoy a drink "don't you fucking ignore me you pipboy wearing bitch! Fight me!" The drunken fool pulled out a switchblade and pointed it inches from Nathaniel's face "I'll cut your fucking face off your bastard! Unless you get up and fight me like a fucking man!" The crowd in the inn seemed to take a few steps back, even Vadim seemed to magically disappear to the back room. Nathaniel glanced at the drunk and went back to drinking his whiskey, "look, um David was it? Go home before you get hurt, these fine people and I would like to drink in peace." Nathaniel said drinking his whiskey, feeling the drunkards eyes stabbing him in the back. "Did you just threaten my you fuck?! I'll end you! You fucker!" The drunk took a step forward, switchblade in hand. Before David could take another step, Nathaniel had pulled out his .44 magnum and had it aimed it directly at the drunks face, taking the drunk and the patrons by surprise. Nathaniel, who wasn't even turned around yet , spun around in the stool to face the drunk this time. David. I'm gonna say this again. Go. Home." Nathaniel spun around in the stool and went back to drinking his whiskey, holstering his .44 mag, David seemed not so happy about the threat "you dumb fucking bastard I'll ki-" before he could finish the sentence, Nathaniel pulled out his revolver and had shot the drunk in his private area. "You bas...you shot my dick!!....he shot my dick off!!!" The drunk said as he was squirming on the floor. Vadim walked back into the bar seeing the drunk on the floor lying in a pool of blood,"what the fuck my friend?!? I'm fine with ass kickings but why'd you have to shoot the man?!" Nathaniel looked at the Russian and pulled out a small leather pouch with a small amount of caps in it and tossed it towards the barkeep, who in turn caught it. "Sorry about the mess vadim." And with that Nathaniel left the bar, leaving his half finished whiskey on the table and a bleeding drunk on the floor. As he left the bar Nathaniel saw vadims brother yafim smoking a cigarette in booth outside, Nathaniel walked up to him "uh yafim, in sorry to add to your duties but it would be better to hear it from me then your brother. I may have shot a drunk in the bar and it may need to be cleaned up. I'm sorry again" Nathaniel tried to say it as nicely and empathetically as he could muster, yafim instead of being pissed simply sighed and slumped more into the booth "was it that dumb fuck david..?" He asked as if expecting to already know the answer. Before Nathaniel could even say another word, yafim got up and walked towards the door, as he opened it and was about to go in he looked at Nathaniel "thank you for telling me, I know I should probably be mad at you, but you were nice enough to warn me, most just leave shit and don't feel sorry about it. Thank you and haha and welcome to Diamond City." And with that he walked in and shut the door. Even through the thick metal door into the bar he could hear yafim and vadim yelling in Russian and Nathaniel wasn't gonna bother trying to figure out what they were yelling about and wasn't gonna stay to find out. As he walked through the city he was was impressed with it, a good medical facility, a school, a security station, and of course the stores in the center of the city. He walked up the a nice little restaurant in the the center of town, called the Noodle shop, and to make it more interesting it was run by a protectron named Takahasi, written ever so nicely on a magnetic name tag, Nathaniel smiled at the protectron "hello uh takahasi? I'd like a cup of noodles please and a nuka cola if you have one." The protectron turned slightly to Nathaniel "nan-ni shimosha ka?" Nathaniel turned his head quizzicality at the robot for a minute. "Um what?" The robot continued looking at Nathaniel saying the same thing in his robotic unemotional yet now somewhat comical "nan-ni shimosha ka?". Nathaniel sighed and was about to leave when there was a pat on his shoulder and a familiar voice said to him "sentinel, a word of advice, just say yes. The broken bastard doesn't even charge a single fucking cap." Nathaniel turned and say kodiak without his armor on with a smug smile in his chiseled and worn features. "Kodiak. Don't sneak up behind me like that! And thanks for advice. I think the robot is broken or I'm not speaking the right language " kodiak patted his sentinel on the back hard, knocking the wind out of him, and threw back his head and let it a loud belly laugh. "Sentinel it looks like a lot of shit is broken in the town! The fucking trader here in the market is scared that anyone and everyone are synths and wouldn't even let me buy any shit because 'talk like a synth' the fucking detective in this town went missing a week or so ago, their newspaper is about to be shut down by that creep of a mayor, and a fucking nuka addict tried to steal my bottle of quantum! I punched the bastard to next week so it's all good now. But boss, this city is full of problems." Nathaniel looked up at the sky,"I'm starting to see that. Where are the others?" Nathaniel turned in his stool so he was facing Kodiak , kodiak shifted his footing, "well Gallows is walking around surveying the city with Colvin like you ordered, Dusk went to the upper stands to get some food, apparently they make great deathclaw omlets, and Glade went to the back wall and is cleaning his Gatling. And I happened to find you here." Nathaniel smirked 'that's the family for ya'. Nathaniel looked back at Kodiak, "try and keep everyone in line Kodi, in trying to stay on the good side of this mayor" Kodiak laughed "I'll try Stark, but it's hard to keep these numbskulls in line without ya!" He patted Nathaniel on the back and walked back down the alleyway, and disappeared around the corner. Nathaniel got off the stool and walked towards the upper stands, as he was walking a little girl walked up to him and handed him a newspaper "here mister, all visitors get a free newspaper from Publik Occurrences." He smiled at the girl and sat on the bench across from Publik Occurrences and read the headline at the top, NICK VALENTINE MISSING? Diamond cities own synth detective has mysteriously disappeared, supposedly during one of his cases, 'Nick Valentine. I remember him, he interviewed me about the mysterious stranger. One question, how does he know of the stranger?' Nathaniel thought.  
'This land gets stranger and stranger by the second' he thought as he walked the the all faiths church to pray. He needed the quiet for a bit


	3. Chapter 3

Fallout: Steel in the Commonwealth   
Chapter: 3  
It had been 3 days since Nathaniel and the pride came to Diamond City, uneventful for the most part, besides him shooting the drunk, Dusk ripping out one of the eye sensors on the snobby Mr handy in the upper stands, and Kodiak punching a nuka addict, Nathaniel stoop in the dugout inns restroom, cleaning his face of the Commonwealth dust. After he was finished he stared at himself in the mirror. His face had a jagged deep scar across the bridge of his nose, another across his left eye. His dark brown hair had grown longer from their time traveling to the Commonwealth and throughout their visit and had now gotten so long Nathaniel had to have it put in a colonial style pony tail. And his body, 'too many scars to count' he thought. He looked down at his clothes and patted some of the dust off of it. His signature vault 101 jumpsuit with a regulator duster over it, the jumpsuit had become torn in places and completely stained in others, and more than once he had to sew the numbers back on, the overall dark blue color had faded to almost a turquoise and the fabric had become so thin he could almost feel the wind ripping through the fibers. The duster was in better shape but not by much, it too had become stained, it was torn in places from shrapnel and bullets, and though it was weathered, it's leather was still tough. Nathaniel stared at this man in the mirror. '15 years. 15 fucking years since I left vault 101. 5 years since I lost.....don't think about her....stop....' but he did think of her again. He remembered every bit of her. "Sarah....." he finally said aloud. He soon realized he wasn't looking at the mirror, nor was he standing, he was on his knees. Nathaniel Stark wasn't in the Commonwealth right now, he was in the Capitol again. He was with her. He was with Sarah again. He had these thoughts of her, more and more every day. Every dream was about her, every time he blinked he could see her. 'You let her die....NO SHUT UP! You. Let. Her. Die.' He was brought back into reality by the feeling of tears streaming down his face. He checked his pip boy. He had been in here for 2 hours! He stood up straight, cleaned his knees off, and washed his face again. 'I can't let people see me cry, I need to be strong....that's what she would want.' He took a deep breath and walked out of the restroom. He walked out of the Dugout and breathed the musty aroma of Diamond City that he had gotten used to in the past 3 days. He walked to the back wall where the pride were waiting for him. "About damn time you showed up!" Dusk said throwing her arms in the air playfully, her bright smile was contagious and the others began to chuckle. "Sorry about that guys..just had to eat myself cleaned up. Who knows when we'll be back here." Nathaniel said with his signature grin on his face. Dusk and Kodiak rolled their eyes and walked to their power armor sets while Colvin, Gallows, and Glade were already ready in their T60s, after Kodiak and Dusk had gotten in theirs and adjusted accordingly they gathered around their leader and waited for instructions. Nathaniel turned on his pip boy and switched it to a map of the Commonwealth, "okay troops, since we couldn't find the recon team, our second objective is to take this small military bunker at the far north of the Commonwealth near this vault, vault 111, and we'll need to establish communications with the brotherhood in the Capitol. Understood?" The pride saluted "sir yes sir." Nathaniel looked at his teammates, he was dwarfed by them, their power armor made them a good 2 feet taller than him. He shut the pip boy off and adjusted himself. "Good, I'm staying a bit longer but I'll meet you all there. Dismissed." The pride turned and began their hike back to the north, towards a vault and a dump called sanctuary hills. Gallows was the last to leave, he turned to his leader "don't take too long." And with that he turned and walked with his brothers and sister towards their destination. 'Man of few words' Nathaniel thought to himself. Nathaniel needed to pick up his power armor and supplies at the Dugout. As he was walking he noticed a very new face walk into the city with a German shepherd at his heels and a dark haired woman in a red leather duster and a matching red press hat. The stranger looked completely out of place in this world, awkward, he too seemed amazed by Diamond City like when Nathaniel and the pride came here. He noticed that this stranger was very clean, he didn't have any dirt, or gore on him or his clothes, his facial hair was clean cut, and had the style that would be considered now to be the lone wanderer beard, but the most striking features about him was his dark blue jumpsuit and a brand new pip boy 3000 on his left arm. Nathaniel brushed it off 'fucking scavs' he thought but as he was about to head to the Dugout to get his stuff, the stranger tapped him on his shoulder. "Uh hey, I'm looking for Nick Valentines detective agency. Could you please tell me where that is?" The stranger in the vault suit said with a clean polite smile, showing off his clean white teeth. Nathaniel looked the stranger up and down for a minute and happened to notice the letters of the vault he was from, vault 111. Nathaniel adjusted his hat and looked at the stranger and tried to put on his best polite smile. "Yeah, it's just down that side alleyway, behind the barbershop." He said pointing in that general direction. The stranger smiled, but instead of walking down the alleyway, he turned and followed the woman in the red leather duster inside Publik Occurrences. He looked back at Nathaniel "thank you. You were very nice." And with that the stranger disappeared inside the newspaper shop. Nathaniel shrugged it off. 'Just a dirty scav who got lucky.' He turned and went to the Dugout; got in his suit of power armor, picked up his supplies, and headed towards the gate. He stopped at the steps leading out of the city and turned once again to see the city one more time before he would have to leave. He noticed the stranger in the vault suit go walk out of Piblik Occurrences with the same red leather woman and go down the alley towards Nick Valentines Detective agency. Nathaniel was curious on who this scav was, why did he go into Publik Occurrences, why was he trying to find Nick Valentine, and why was he wearing a vault suit and a pip boy. Nathaniel pushed those questions out of his head. 'Focus on the task at hand Nate.' And with that final thought he walked out of Diamond City and back into the turmoil of the Commonwealth.   
Nathaniel hated the silence, he hated the loud thuds his power armored boots made when he walked. 'Turn on the radio' he thought but also thought against it, the disc jockey Diamond City left in charge of their radio was so socially awkward, and so annoying it made Nathaniel want to cut his own ears out. He stopped for a moment and sifted through his pip boy settings in the HUD of his power armor. He debated on whether to turn on the classical radio station or this one that was named Old World Tunes. He decided to switch to Old World tunes and was happily surprised by the music, wonderful music from the Old World. And with the cheery music playing in his HUD Nathaniel continued in his journey, but with a little more bounce in his step. (If you even can have a bounce in your step in power armor.)


	4. Chapter 4

Fallout: Steel in the Commonwealth   
Chapter: 4  
As Nathaniel made his way towards the bunker he could feel like someone was watching him. That unshakeable feeling of being watched and the dreadful feeling you get in your gut when there's danger around. Nathaniel pulled out his trusty .50 cal hunting rifle Ol' Painless and scanned the nearby buildings and landscape, searching for the threat, when all of a sudden 10 large green masses came charging from the underbrush to his right, one of the 10 rammed into Nathaniel and sent him tumbling across the dirt. Knocking the wind out of him, "fuck!!" He quickly got back to his feet and fired round after round at the hulking green monsters. One bullet hit a monster in the head, causing it to blow off a chunk of its features. Another bullet missed a monster and hit the building behind it. Nathaniel ducked behind cover of a nearby abandoned car and shot blindly at the green monsters screaming and shooting at him. Nathaniel saw the body of the monster he killed and saw the same terrible, deformed, bruteish features that the super mutants in the Capitol had. 'How are these fuckers here too?!' He thought. "Die! Metal man!!" A mutant screamed as it threw a frag grenade at the car. 'Shit!' Nathaniel sprinted away from the car and shot at the grenade while it was still in the air, causing the grenade to explode, killing the mutant and injuring a couple others. Nathaniel dropped to one knee and fired three more shots hitting a mutant in the chest and head and grazing the skull of another. 'Fuck! I'm losing my edge!' Nathaniel sprinted and rammed into one of the injured mutants sending it crashing into the dirt, he growled and smashed his armored boot into the mutants head, crushing it flat, and splattering the abominations brain matter and gore all over the white T51. Before the other injured mutant could take a shot, Nathaniel grabbed the crushed mutants pipe rifle and fired 15 rounds into the mutant sending it into a wall before it flopped lifelessly onto the cracked pavement. He picked up Ol' Painless and darted to behind a Poliwski preservation chamber, aimed, and pulled the trigger at the leader of this mutant group, CLICK! 'FUCK!' He slung Painless over his shoulder and grabbed the pipe rifle of another dead mutant. Firing rapidly trying to get the brutes to at least take cover. A couple bullets hit a mutant in the throat and right through its eye socket. Sending blood and brains all across the front of a boarded up building. "GRAHHHHH!! FLITHY HUMAN!!!!WE! ARE! THE FUTURE!!" As Nathaniel took aim at the leader, two other mutants came charging his direction. Carrying....what was it they were......'FUCK IT AND RUN!!!' Nathaniel picked up Ol' Painless and sprinted as fast as he could away from those mutants. He jumped behind a fallen tree in the road and fired the pipe rifle and the mutants in hot pursuit. He fired at them rapidly, hitting them in the chest and one directly in the head but not even that stopped them. Nathaniel began to panic and fired at the blinking mini nuke in one of their hands. With tremendous results. When the bullet hit the mini nuke it set off a small nuclear blast, setting off his partners as well encompassing the entire street in fire, demolishing the nearby buildings and landscape. Killing the remaining mutants. 'What. The. Actual. Fuck.' He thought, "when did mutants get mini nukes?! And where?!?" He yelled out to himself. He checked his armor checking for any damage or if he had been shot, luckily not a dent or mark on him besides the thick blood and brains dropping down his armor from the mutants. He took another look at the damaged battleground, 'super mutants. Tough, strong and even when they get higher tech their infamously stupid.' He shouldered his rifle and continued his hike to the bunker. He tuned back into Old World Tunes and listened the jolly and cheerful music from the prewar days. One of the songs that came on was that of victory polka, dancing and welcoming back troops who fought overseas and reveling in victory after the war. 'Victory polka? I'm sorry to the nice people in the song but there was no victory polka after this war. Only suffering.' He thought. Nathaniel looked around the Commonwealth and chuckled "war. War never changes...it never has and it never will. Mankind has changed, but war? War is the vile mistress that kills peace and tests the present and next generation." He said aloud to no one in particular. He sighed and continued his hike. It was nightfall when he reached the edge of concord. He remembered passing through concord on the way in. Kicking in doors and searching for supplies and any information on where Recon Team Gladius where. But as he traveled further into the town he noticed some interesting fresh features in the town, on the main road leading to the museum of freedom, dead raiders were scattered all over the street and a giant black heap near the entrance of the museum. All the buildings were pock marked with bullet holes 'minigun? What fucker had a minigun?!' He made his way cautiously down the street, towards the giant black heap. As he got closer he found out what that black heap was....the large, scaley, hell spawn that came to the wasteland thanks to the prewar military that tried playing god again; a deathclaw. He took two giant steps back and turned back towards sanctuary hills. As he got to the old north bride he was taken back at sanctuary hills. Instead of being a total dump and abandoned was now full of people. Small lamp lights flickered through the windows of buildings. He walked cautiously across the bridge when a black man with a makeshift laser rifle and a very interesting costume threw up the rifle "hold up! Who are you and what are you doing here!?" The man said in a authoritarian voice. 'New leader, doesn't look old enough to be a seasoned leader' Nathaniel thought. He raised his power armored arms in the air "look sir, I mean no harm. Some of my group came by here earlier today and I'm heading to our meet up point. I'd like to cross the bridge and proceed up the hill." Nathaniel said nicely. The man lowered his rifle slightly "your not part of the gunners are you? Your not from Quincy?" Nathaniel kept his hands in the air but happen to notice he was no longer alone at the bride, alongside the man in the funny costume was a Asian man and woman, a tall broad man with a mullet; a pipe pistol aimed at Nathaniel, and a old lady who, even from this far away and with little lighting he could tell the old lady was high on so many drugs. "I'm not with these gunners that you speak of and I'm not even from Quincy. Me and my friends are from the Capitol Wasteland." And after Nathaniel had said that, almost automatically the man in the costume and the one with the mullet lowered their weapons and seemed more relaxed. "Sorry for pointing a gun at you sir. Me and my people are a little on edge, we've been on the run for months since the gunners took Quincy. Then our luck got worse when we were ambushed in concord." The man slung his junk laser rifle over his shoulder. By now Nathaniel was curious, 'they were in concord? Did they do that damage?' He thought. Nathaniel lowered his arms and popped his knuckles. "Concord? I just passed through there. Was the dead raiders and deathclaw your groups doing?" The costumed man laughed and smiled at Nathaniel "hahaha! No! No, that wasn't us but one of our new friends who came and saved us did." At that point the man with the mullet joined in "yeah, that son of a bitch took on that whole crew of raiders and the deathclaw with a fucking minigun and some clunky old set of T45 power armor! For a vault dweller he was pretty damn good at killing shit!" Now this group had Nathaniel's full attention. 'Vault dweller?' Nathaniel turned his attention back to the costumed man. "He happen to be wearing a pip boy and a vault suit with the numbers 1-1-1 on it?" The costumed man stepped forward "uh yeah..he went to Diamond City looking for any leads to find his son, Shaun. Apparently from what he told me when he got us here that vault 111 cryofreezed people and he's over 200 years old and had just recently been woken up and some evil bastard killed his wife and stole his newborn son." 'Now that makes sense.' He had taken information about all vaults in the entire US and one of their main purposes was testing cryofreezing technology. "Reason why i asked, before you raise your guns at me again, I was in Diamond City early this morning and I happened to bump into him." The costumed man smiled and relaxed, he stepped forward and offered to shake Nathaniel's hand. He took his and shook it gently, being cautious of the fact that in power armor it wouldn't take much to rip the arm off. "I'm Preston Garvey, Commonwealth Minutemen. And welcome to sanctuary hills."


	5. Chapter 5

Fallout: Steel in the Commonwealth   
Chapter 5  
Nathaniel had heard of the Minutemen, the ancient militia group that fought during the American revolution, ready to fight at a minutes notice. Even in these post apocalyptic times they were revered, until recently, with the loss of the castle, the countless failures of their generals, and ultimately the massacre at Quincy. Since the massacre people in the Commonwealth claimed that the Minutemen were completely wiped out. Gone. Another faction lost to the winds of the wastes; but here they were. 5 survivors from Quincy. Saved by some lucky vault dweller, huddled in the farthest corner of the Commonwealth. "Pleasure to meet you Preston." Nathaniel said as he shook Prestons hand, The Minutemen Leader smiled, "and it's a pleasure......uh what's your name? Haha I feel embarrassed for asking." Nathaniel chuckled and took off his helmet, looking at the small group of people without his helmet, and even without the improved sensors of his HUD he could see that this group was in bad shape. "My name is Nathaniel Stark. But my friends simply call me Nate." He said with a broad smile. The man named Preston scanned Nathaniel's features,"well Mr Stark, your welcome to stay here for the night and head out in the morning, we can't promise you food, water or safety but it's the least we can offer." Preston said scratching the back of his head, avoiding eye contact out of embarrassment. "I'd love to but I need to be on the move. I appreciate your hospitality and your kindness Preston." Nathaniel slid his helmet back on and waited for the clamp and hiss of the helmet resealing. The group split and allowed him to pass. "If your ever back in the neighborhood Stark, we'd be happy to have you join up with the Minutemen when we're back to full strength." Preston said as Nathaniel walked away. He turned and looked at the Minuteman, "I'll greatly consider it, but I hope your policy doesn't include aiming rifles at initiates" even in the dark with Prestons dark complexion, Nathaniel could see him blush. And with that Nathaniel turned and walked towards the vault. He was deep in thought as he walked through the neighborhood, about to reach a small trail that splintered off of the main road in sanctuary, when a frail hand grabbed his arm and yanked him back into reality. "I know you. The sight doesn't lie, your face. The sight told me I would see your face here." Nathaniel turned to see who's hand and whos voice it was, he turned and saw that the hand belonged to the junkie old lady that was at the bridge, her eyes were glazed over, a typical sign for addicts, she was slouched over as if to show how old and frail she was, and her hands shook. 'Typical sign of withdrawal. This bitch has been without chems for a while.' "The sight? What are you talking about?" He said trying to be patient, but in Nathaniel's experience having patience with a chem addict is hard and doesn't bear much fruit. The old lady only smiled "child, the sight helps me predict things. Things that could happen, have happened, and will happen. It's a gift that I use to help in any way." Nathaniel tried to hold in a laugh. 'Yeah, chems definitely give YOU the ability to see into the future.' A lot of wastelanders had said that to him and others in his time in the Capitol and it was all a scam, a scam for caps and chems. He took off his helmet and held it under his arm. And put on a smile and tried to be polite but the old lady saw through it with ease. "I know you dont believe me. Perhaps I could give you a demonstration?" Nathaniel pondered it for a minute or two, shifting his weight in the armor. 'This could be a scam' against his better judgement he decided to play along and let the elderly addict to her sight scam "okay lady, what does the sight say about me?" He said and watched her expressions, scanning every body movement to see if she was being for real or was she scamming him. The lady calmly pulled out a jet inhaler and breathed in the chems fumes. Her eyes somehow glazed more and she took one of Nathaniel's power armored hands and looked into his eyes. Her glazed, bloodshot eyes looked into his steel greys, it made him uncomfortable. "I see....war....your a man far from home.....in this land you will find family......friendship.....and love.....or closure....closure of losing someone close to you....you will play a major role in shaping this land....." and with that her 'sight' was finished, her eyes became somewhat clearer. "Oh......that's all I could give you.....I'm sorry.....I gotta....I gotta sit down " the lady shuffled away, leaving Nathaniel alone, in the dark, in shock of her predictions. He walked down the trail and stopped at a small metal gate, it's frame was mangled and all around the entrance, layed bones. Bones of men and women, scraps of cloth still clung to their bodies, by the looks they were prewar, he looked up the hill, knowing the vault was so close. 'They were so close, close but no cigar.' Nathaniel once felt sadness for the skeletons, a natural human emotion that Nathaniel had to kill to survive in this land, all he felt now for the dead was pity, it was pitiful that they died like this, to be so close but just out of reach. It was pitiful that when the bombs went off here all they would become was bones, to become food for the creature that came after. He took a deep breath and went through the gate and walked up the hill. As he reached the top of the hill he saw the vault, but unlike the others he had been used to seeing. It was vertically made, the main door directly down into the vault like a elevator. 'I'll check it out later if I come back' he thought and continued his hike towards the bunker. But the further and further down the road, the further he was away from that lady and the vault, but he couldn't shake that lady's prediction. 'She knew about Sarah...and I have family here?' He continued walking but even when he turned on the radio he couldn't shake the old lady's words. "I have family....here?" He turned and looked around his surroundings. "Family" he said aloud, it was somewhat comforting yet also alarming. 'My only family died. They both died, the all died. I watched them die.... so who is this family I have here?' He made one last look behind him, took a deep breath, and began the trek to the bunker.


	6. Chapter 6

Fallout: Steel in the Commonwealth   
Chapter 6  
He reached the bunker by dawn. The bunker was heavily fortified, a thick concrete bunker, gun ports, thick metal guard posts, deactivated turrets and a helipad. Nathaniel walked further into the compound now noticing shell casings and on further inspection he noticed a destroyed robot, unlike other robots like the protectron or robobrain this one was tall, slender, almost woman like, two menecing claws on both hands and 1 eye, a eye that could fire a single laser round. 'I'm glad we didn't have these back in the Capitol' he thought to himself. He shrugged and walked into the bunker, small empty desks, a broken radio, a flight of stairs and a broken elevator with....skeletons in it. He walked through the room not seeing the pride. 'Where are they?!' He thought slowly getting worried. He started to scan the desks and walls. Turning on power armor spotlight and scanned the walls he found what he had been searching for and sighed in relief. There was a symbol painted on the wall. The symbol looked almost like the traditional Brotherhood symbol, it had the large wings in it but the cogs were replaced with a lion. A lion in a striking pose. Nathaniel knew this symbol well, it was his symbol, the symbol of Lyons pride. He went down the stairs cautiously. Slowly walking down the stairs, careful to not making much noise in his power armor. As he was reaching the last step, 3 spotlights hit him at once and the very familiar sound of rifles being primed and ready to be fired. "Stay right there and state your-...boss?" One of the voices said in the blinding spotlight. "Stand down guys it's the boss!" Nathaniel recognized the voice now and sighed to himself. 'Dusk, thank god' he turned to the spotlights and removed his helmet, blinding him further for a bit. "Hey guys! Mind turning off the spotlights?" He said with his daring smile. The spotlights dimmed and he could hear the guns turn their safety's on. One of the pride stepped forward and smacked Nathaniel on both arms in a friendly pat. "Nathaniel! Boss it's about damn time you made it here!" Nathaniel recognized this voice as well. Nathaniel looked at his helmeted friend "Hey Kodiak! I'm sorry for the delay." Kodiak took off his helmet showing off his broad grin and let out and hearty laugh. "It's a tad more than a delay boss! We were just about to send Gallows out to look for you! Weren't we Gallows?" Kodiak turned to their power armored brother in the back of the group huddled around their leader. Gallows simply looked at Kodiak and Nathaniel and simply nodded, then turned and walked further into the lower levels of the bunker. After a somewhat cheery reunion and was briefed about the bunker and the prides trip. Nathaniel ordered the pride to get their power armor repaired and guns thoroughly checked and cleaned. From what the pride had briefed him, their hike was relatively uneventful. They did shoot some raiders near a old drive in theatre and were attacked by a deadly highly advanced prewar robot named a 'assalutron' as they discovered. The one Nathaniel discovered outside the bunker.   
Nathaniel ordered the bunker door shut and locked, and attempted to establish communications to Maxson in the Capitol but to no avail, only static and prewar radio and ham radio stations still buzzing it's faint distress and ominous signals.   
Throughout the morning the pride got its needed sleep with shifts in between. While the pride slept and took guard duty, Nathaniel had taken advantage of the bunkers officers quarters, but for a quarters it wasn't that special besides a lockable door, a desk, a working radio, some filing cabinets and a slightly damaged terminal everything else was decrepit and falling apart, the bed was moldy and stained, the concrete in the quarters was cracked and had severe water damage along with the floor. All other equipment and computers were so waterlogged and aged beyond repair at this point, but Nathaniel would take what was given. He sat at his desk and began to write his report. About arriving from the glowing see, the failed search for Gladius and the prides trek to the bunker including his. After it was through he placed it in a envelope and stored it temporarily in the desk. As he was finishing up he heard a soft knock on the quarters door. "Come in!" He said towards the door. The door opened and paladin Colvin strolled into the quarters scanning the quarters with a large warm smile. "Hey Nathaniel. Just wanted to stop by and see how you like the 'executive suit'" Colvin said with a grin, that same teasing grin that him, Glade, Kodiak, and Dusk shared against him. "Yeah it's wonderful! Absolutely wonderful! I certainly enjoy smelling mold and seeing glowing fungus and mushrooms on the walls. At least I'll be able to see in the dark a little." Nathaniel said with a playful scowl. Colvin laughed and sat in one of the chairs facing Nathaniel.  
When Nathaniel first became part of the pride he didn't know the pride that well, he was a outsider, a Wasteland scav; but after Sarah and Elder Owyn Lyons welcomed him in as a honorary member of both the pride and the brotherhood he got to know them all. From Kodiak and his tragic and vivid story of his youth in the Pitt, to Gallows and the name he kept to himself and the prides pool collected to know what it was. Nathaniel grew to love them all, and they grew to love and respect him as both a leader and a trusted friend. "I'm worried about you.." Nathaniel turned back to Colvin, the warm smile that could always be seen was no longer there, replaced by a look of worry and deep concern. Nathaniel put on a smile "Colvin there's no need to be worried I'm fi-" before he could finish Colvin put his hand up in a zip it gesture. Colvin shot Nathaniel a scowl. "Don't bullshit me Nate. I'm worried about you and your gonna sit there and listen to it." Nathaniel's brow furrowed and he sat back in his chair, listening to his friend. "The pride knows your still not better. You can fool regular brotherhood grunts and the eggheads but you can't fool us. Your still grieving over Sarah." Nathaniel looked at Colvin surprised. Even though he tried to hide his feelings and pain with fake smiles and laughter, the pride could see through the bullshit and had sent Colvin to break off the bullshit. "Your our brother Nate. We all want to help, but you need to help us by stopping this fake shit. Stop acting like your some tough, emotionless ass. We've known you long enough, we've seen you bleed, cry, and damn near piss yourself so cut this bullshit." Nathaniel leaned forward sighing and putting his head in his hands. "I'm sorry Colvin. It's just...it's the only thing I can do to keep it all together, to be tough or to just fake it till I make it; it's. been 5 years and I still can't make it." Nathaniel felt a strong hand on his shoulder looked up to see Colvin hand and his concerned look. "Look Nathaniel, I miss Sarah too, we all do. Not a day goes by that I don't, but you need to lean on us. We're your family, all of us." Colvin shot Nathaniel a warm smile. It comforted him. It was a warmth he needed. "You're right, Colvin, you're right. It's just hard." Colvin stood up and looked at Nathaniel with the same warm smile "i know brother. I know" Nathaniel stood up as well and hugged Colvin and Colvin hugged back. This was needed. Needed to snap Nathaniel out of the fake bullshit and be himself again. Small conversation as it was he needed someone close to snap him out of it.   
That night, as Nathaniel and the pride enjoyed the comforts of safety and protection from the bunker; they were being watched by creature, a boogeyman, the commonwealths boogeyman. All wastelands and settlements had their own interpretation of the boogeyman, this one had dull, metal, yellow eyes.


	7. Chapter 7

Fallout: Steel in the Commonwealth   
Chapter 7  
The days the pride spent in the bunker were uneventful, besides a small infestation of radroaches, several failed attempts to get a message out to the Brotherhood, or the constant rad storms coming in from the west. Nathaniel hated sleeping in the bunker, especially due to the fact that when every time it storms rain seeps into the his room. 'If this keeps on I'm gonna have to swim out of here.' Nathaniel thought to himself. He got up off his cot and walked down the hall, the artificial lights splaying his shadow over the cold concrete walls, he walked into the bunkers restroom and decided to clean his face. Turning on the water, watching the dark chunky dirty water flow out of the sink, Nathaniel ignored the looks of the water, cupped his hands and washed his face as thoroughly as possible. As he finished he turned on his pip boy light, lighting up the entire dark bathroom, he looked at himself in the mirror, his beard was now way out of control. It had become so long he swore he could have it braided; Nathaniel pulled out his straight razor and began to trim his beard and hair, when he was done his beard was neatly trimmed and he had shaved his head to a military high and tight. As he was about to finish cleaning the hair and beard trimmings off his sleep shirt and the floor the bathroom door swung open and Paladin Dusk walked in completely in her own world, humming softly to one of the songs on classical radio, she stopped and gasped seeing Nathaniel cleaning hair off himself. "Oh! Sorry boss! I didn't know you were in here. Sorry if I scared you." Dusk said sheepishly, laughing nervously, Nathaniel smiled and laughed "its fine Dusk, I was about to leave anyway. The bathroom is all yours." Nathaniel picked up his razor and was about to head out the door when Dusk grabbed his arm "hey boss. I was wondering, you wanna suit up in a bit and do some sparring and maybe some hunting. I know none of those knuckle draggers can hunt worth a shit." Nathaniel looked at Dusk, her dark hair messy and bedraggled, her features weathered yet still youthful, and it wasn't hard to see she was nervous. He always had known that Dusk had a crush on him, even when he was still a greenhorn In the Brotherhood and when he was with Sarah. 'She's sweet, kind, and super loyal but I'm not in a place emotionally to date' he thought to himself. "Sure Dusk, I bet I can kick your ass!" He said to her jokingly knowing full well that she could kick his ass and nearly everyone in the pride. She smiled broadly and punched Nathaniel in the arm hard. "Whatever you say dumbass, let's make a bet. If I win, you have to clean everyone's power armor for a month!" She said smirking at Nathaniel. "Fair deal, but if I win. You have to have to clean every one of my weapons and the prides." Dusk punched Nathaniel in the arm again "deal!" And with that she walked briskly out of the bathroom to get her gear. 'I probably should have made the bet that she needs to stop punching my fucking arm.' He thought to himself. Nathaniel put on his vault suit and duster, grabbing his hat and Ol Painless and walked out of the bunker with Dusk. By the time they had finished sparring Nathaniel had a busted lip and maybe 1 broken rib while as Dusk only had a couple scrapes and a bruise or 2. It was obvious that Nathaniel had lost big time. 'Fuck, fuck, fuck. It's gonna take forever to clean all their power armor. I swear she cheated'. Dusk smiled and grabbed his shoulder tightly. "Don't feel down boss! Sarah couldn't even beat me in sparring, the only one who can beat me is Gallows." Nathaniel smirked 'of course Gallows could win. The mans a fucking ninja'.   
Nathaniel went to a nearby tree where him and Dusk layed their rifles. He sat down, grabbing his canteen and drinking the purified water. Dusk snatched the canteen and sat next to Nathaniel and drank a share of the water. "And don't worry boss. I'm sure washing all our power armor won't take that long " she laughed at Nathaniel. He sighed playfully and snatched the water back. "Yeah, yeah I'll kick your ass one day!" Dusk just seemed to laugh even louder "sure you can! When I'm a cripple or dead!" Nathaniel kicked her in her shin "come on. Let's get some fucking hunting done before it gets dark." He picked up Ol Painless and headed further into the woods she grabbed her rifle and followed suit.   
The woods were quiet, no birds, no little mutated woodland creatures to kill or be attacked by. Nothing. "So boss. When are we going home? We've been here searching for Gladius and the other lost patrol and we can't even finish our secondary objective, so why don't we pack our shit and head back to the citadel or the Air Force base?" Nathaniel stopped and turned to dusk, he knows the pride was getting cabin fever from sitting in the bunker for a few weeks and the frustration of transmissions not going through, but he had hope, hope that they would find the lost patrols and get home, hope that one day he could see his friends in the Capitol again, hope that he could sleep in his own damn bed for once. "I know you guys are getting stir crazy but we need to hold position and try as many times as possible to reach the citadel or at least the base." Dusk simply nodded and continued walking. Nathaniel adjusted his rifle and walked too.   
They walked in silence for a while till they reached the edge of the forest, after that it was only a steep cliff over looking a gorge. Nathaniel had to stop and enjoy the morbid beauty of the wasteland. He kneeled at the edge of the cliff and looked at the surrounding areas. At the bottom of the gorge was a large stream. 'There's suck deep beauty in this world. Who would have known that the old world ending would bring beauty never seen in history.'   
As he looked around the gorge and the stream he saw something truly magnificent and yet terrifying. A large pack of deathclaws, about 50 in total, even he could see the differences in each one, a couple had broken or damaged long horns, others were the generic deathclaw, but there were some glowing brightly in the back of the pack and at the front there was the alpha and matriarch and following close behind were a dozen baby deathclaws. Dusk knelt beside him, raising her rifle to see through her scope. "Holy shit boss! That's a whole fucking lot of them." Nathaniel smiled not turning to look at her, just keeping his eyes trained on the pack of man eaters that have terrorized the wasteland since the bombs fell. 'The old worlds greatest mistake that we have to pay for now' he thought. "Yeah, but you have to admit, from this distance they are majestic." Dusk lowered her rifle and slung it over her shoulder and sat down next to Nathaniel. "True. They are majestic man eaters spawned from hell." She laughed. Nathaniel laughed with her and got up, slinging Ol Painless over his shoulder. "Let's go back, it's getting late." Dusk nodded and headed back down the way they came. Nathaniel walked away from the cliff and was heading down the path they had traveled but stopped to look one more time at the deathclaws, and with one final look he turned and walked down the path right behind Dusk.   
They reached the bunker right after dark. Dusk turned to Nathaniel "thanks boss, this has been a great day. It was great to be out of the bunker for a little bit." She hugged Nathaniel and went back inside. Nathaniel smiled. 'Glad I made someone's day today. Even though I had to get my ass kicked to make it happen.' Nathaniel walked inside the bunker, closing and locking the door behind him and headed down the stairs to join his team. That's when all hell broke loose.......


	8. Chapter 8

Fallout: Steel in the Commonwealth   
Chapter 8  
Big blue flashes. Explosions. Blue laser rounds. Nathaniel ducked behind cover along with the rest of the pride, their their rifles trained at the stairs. When the sound of metallic feet started slowly coming down the stairs. 'Protectrons? Assaultrons? What the hell is attacking us?!' "Attention life forms. By order of the institute you must die" a voice said coming from the darkness of the stairwell. Glade looked at Nathaniel "the institute?! Fucking hell!" Just as glade finished 3 human like machines came down the stairs and began to fire at them, they wore clean pristine white uniforms and their skin was yellowish and their eyes a dark piercing yellow that made it more hellish. The pride returned fire, dusk fired a round, sending it through the head of one synth, blowing off a huge chunk of synthetic skin and gears and parts, sending the synth immediately to the floor. The other synths continued to fire, now directing their fire to dusk and Nathaniel. Their blue laser rounds turning the partially dark lower sections of the bunker a dark blue; Nathaniel leveled Ol Painless and fired a clip into the attacking machines, one bullet went through a synths chest, another clipping its knee and another scraping its metallic skull, ripping a large portion of its skin off, yet it didn't go down. Glade sprinted and grabbed his Gatling laser and unloaded round after round into the synth attackers, turning the metallic abominations into heaps of burnt synthetic skin and melted metal. Glade smiled and got into his power armor along with Colvin and Gallows. "What do we do boss?!" Colvin said, Nathaniel grabbed his wide brimmed hat, a couple bouquets of grenades and Lincolns repeating rifle. "We take this bunker back! Colvin and Glade. Your with me! We clear the area with direct force, make a distraction for the rest of you. Gallows, Kodiak, and Dusk. You pick off any hostiles from the rear, use the ladder to get to top of the bunker and pick off these abominations." As they made their move to rush to their positions, they heard more metallic footsteps heading down fast. "Get in position. Take them by surprise." Nathaniel said crouching behind a couple crates, the synths came down the last few steps firing blindly into the dark. "OPEN FIRE!!! RETURN FIRE!!" Nathaniel screamed, he leveled Lincolns repeating rifle and fired a couple rounds instantly sending two synths to the ground with a loud metallic thud, but they could hear more and more footsteps heading down the stairs. The pride prepped themselves to fire at the incoming synths, when a black man in a black leather jacket that went down to his knees wearing dark sunglasses, behind him were perhaps 10 to 15 synths. A synth handed the man a fat man "for you courser." The metal man said the the man. 'Courser?! What is that?! That a synth too?!' The man didn't say a word and leveled the fat man and fired. "EVERYBODY MOVE!!!" Nathaniel screamed and rolled the others fired and tried to get out of the blast radius, then everything went bright and Nathaniel felt like he was flying, Nathaniel slammed against a wall with a loud crunch. Then everything went black.

Nathaniel woke up to gun fire and explosions. He stirred and shuffled to get up fast. The room they were in was completely dark now, the mini nuke shells shockwave had shattered the light bulbs. He turned on his pip boy light and walked cautiously through the room, the power armor work stations had been turned into mangled messes of scrap, as he scanned the ground all he found were empty fusion cells and shell casings and of course a small crater where the mini nuke hit. As he walked he could hear fighting above him, explosions, pops, and the distinctive sound of a Gatling laser. He turned to go to the officers office where his T51 had been stored when a weak bloodily hand grabbed his ankle. Nathaniel gasped and leveled the rifle at the hand but soon realized who the hand belonged to. "B...boss.....help" the owner of the hand mumbled. Nathaniel fell to his knees, 'Dusk...' Nathaniel moved his pip boy so that she was fully visible, she looked bad, part of her hair and skull was burnt to a crisp, her uniform was torn and shredded almost completely off showing her undershirt but below her waist he couldn't see due to some debris. "Dusk... your gonna be okay.. I-I'll get some stimpacks and blood packs!" Dusk grabbed his arm as if trying to keep him there"boss....I....I can't feel my legs...." Nathaniel moved the debris out of the way and almost threw up. One leg looked like half cooked Brahmin meat, shredded to bits, still steaming, while there wasn't a other leg only a jagged bloody stub. A growing puddle of blood around her. "H....how bad is...." Nathaniel grabbed her hand and held it tight "it's fine dusk, your gonna make it, let me go get bandages and stimpacks." He she weakly tried to grab his hand again "no...." but it was too late Nathaniel ran into the bathroom to get the emergency med kit, he came back with stimpacks, bandages, and MedX. "Dusk I'm right here this will-" Nathaniel stopped and went back on his knees. She wasn't breathing anymore, her eyes half open and already glazing over. Nathaniel dropped the medical supplies and grabbed her hand. 'Not again...not. Again.' He held her hand thinking to himself knowing that he would never see her again in this life, he would never spar with her again, never share a drink with her, never kept thinking and thinking until another explosion shook him out of his grief briefly. He held back tears. He ran his hand over her face closing her half closed eyes. He grabbed her holotags and yanked them free. "I'm sorry Dusk. I'm sorry I couldn't save you....I'm sorry I have to leave you....like this." He stood up and ran to the officers quarters and loaded up into his T-51 and his gear, he looked around the bunker and decided to leave a few gifts for the new tenants. Placing bottlecap mines and plasma mines along with a home made bomb, using Dusks damaged power armor. Over charging the fusion core into a small devastating explosion, turning the whole armor set and frame into a shrapnel factory. And with the final mine and bomb placed, Nathaniel grabbed Lincolns repeating rifle and Ol Painless and the rest of his gear and headed up the stairs. As he climbed the steps a synth with a shock baton lunged at Nathaniel, he leveled the repeating rifle to his hip and fired, blowing the synths head clean off. Nathaniel reached the top of the stairs and sprinted his way out the door frame. Glade and Kodiak were behind sandbags firing blindly at the blue laser rounds coming from the woods. "Nathaniel! Thought you were dead!! Help us clear these fuckers!" Glade yelled from his cover. Nathaniel charged in firing the repeater. One round sent a synth flying back, another knocked a synths head clean off. "Exterminate! Exterminate.!" One synth said from the darkness then there was the distinctive whistling sound of a mini nuke flying. 'SHIT!' Nathaniel sprinted away diving and rolling away from the explosion. "Boss where's Dusk?! We need her out here to pick these bastards off!" Kodiak exclaimed. Nathaniel ignored the question. "We need to leave! Now! I'll cover your escape!" Nathaniel fired blindly into the woods at the hidden enemy's. "we're not leaving you goddamnit! If you stay boss we stay!" Glade said, Nathaniel turned from the woods and was about to say something with a laser round hit Nathaniel in the head sending his T51 helmet soaring into the woods. "GODDAMIT! Glade! Everyone go! That's a fucking order!!" Nathaniel was about to return fire when a loud crash came from behind their cover. "You aren't staying. I am." Nathaniel ,Glade, and Kodiak turned and saw that the voice was was Gallows. "Gallows. No. I'll stay. You need to go!" Nathaniel said. Gallows grabbed Nathaniel by his chest plate "For fuck sake! Go!" As he shoved Nathaniel out of the way another shell hit, this time hitting the bunker. Nathaniel gasped and tried to run as fast as possible, he almost made it into the woods when a blue laser round hit the T51s fusion core, over charging it and causing a meltdown 'FUCK!!' Nathaniel hopped out of the armor as quickly as possible grabbing his gear in a duffle bag and tried to sprint but the T-51 exploded sending Nathaniel flying through the air, gashes of pain filled him as he flew threw the air and crashed into a tree and rolled down into a ravine. He couldn't feel the water cascading under him, or the shrapnel digging deep into his side, turning said water red. Nathaniel tried to stand but ultimately failed. 'Not here.....not now!' He could hear them coming through the woods to him, their metallic and lifeless voices echoing though the blackened trees. Nathaniel grabbed his repeater and aimed it at the top of the ravine. 'Come on you bastards, you kill my family I'll kill you all!' One synth head came into range and Nathaniel fired, instantly killing the metal freak, another come sprinting towards him, missing one arm, the other carried a combat knife, Nathaniel adjusted and fired, slapping the the synth in the chest killing it. Two more came at him firing wildly at him, Nathaniel fired two rounds shooting one leg off and blowing a hole in the others head. He layed in the water waiting, waiting for the big bad boogeyman to climb to the top of the ravine. But there was only silence. No chatter, no guns firing, no explosions, nothing, only silence. Nathaniel layed the repeater down and and tried again to stand, but ultimately fell back and slammed against the ground now slowly going in and out of consciousness . Before he passed out he muttered to the winds of the Commonwealth. "Mom.....Dad....Sarah, I'm coming.....home."  
And with that the world turned black and Nathaniel embraced it this time.


	9. Chapter 9

Fallout: Steel in the Commonwealth   
Chapter 9  
He was home, or was he? Nathaniel opened his eyes and saw the world he was in. Green lush grass and swaying green trees, he looked around and in the distance he saw the Washington monument peeking over the city. He was home. Was this heaven? Was this a dream? Or did he really make it home? "Nate?" a familiar voice said behind him, Nathaniel turned to see who called him. Nathaniel gasped as he saw who it was, her golden hair hadn't changed, her steel grey eyes still warm and comforting, she hadn't aged a day. 'Impossible, I....I have to be in heaven' the woman who called his name stared at him with a warm knowing smile. His long deceased wife. "Sarah?" Nathaniel stumbled to her. Sarah didn't move she spread her arms to embrace her husband. Nathaniel and Sarah hugged tight. "How.....how am I? How are you here?" Sarah ended the hug and looked at Nathaniel and simply gave him a warm smile. "I missed you" Nathaniel teared up and began to cry "I missed you too" Sarah kissed Nathaniel, that same warm and tender kiss she used to always give him in the mornings or when they had just got off patrol or when he was stressed or sad about something, it felt real it was real. "James and Cathrine couldn't be here to see you right now but they wanted to say hi and how proud they are of you, and I want to say how proud I am of you too." Sarah caressed Nathaniel's cheek, 'James? Cathrine? Mom and Dad? This has to be heaven.' "Sadly you can't stay my love...." Sarah said with a sad smile. Nathaniel looked around and noticed that the world around him had changed some, beginning to look more and more like the Commonwealth. "No, no. No. No! I won't lose you again! You can't leave me!!!!" Nathaniel bellowed, falling to his knees in front of her. Sarah kneeled to meet his gaze, Tears streaming down her face. "I know, I wish you could stay. But. It's not your time. Not yet. You have to wake up." And with that Nathaniel woke up, gasping, he looked around seeing that he was back in the Commonwealth, still laying in the ravine, still bleeding. Nathaniel couldn't take it anymore and began to sob. 'Why God?! You kill my family and friends. I was so close! I was home!' Nathaniel layed there, crying, bleeding, the whole world melting away, all that mattered was him and this cursed ravine.   
Finally after a bit the crying stopped, all that was left was anger and sorrow and the urge to survive. Anger for the synths who butchered his friends, sorrow for the fact he couldn't save them. Nathaniel looked up into the sky, it was mid day, he had been laying in this ravine for a whole night and half day. Nathaniel tried to stand or sit up but to no avail, he decided to crawl to the other side of the ravine, crawling through thick bush and dragging over sharp rocks, a blood trail streaking behind him faintly. After a hour or so he reached the top, grabbing a nearby tree, his nails digging deep into the blackened and shriveled bark. He finally made it to his feet and leaned against the tree.   
He felt over his body finding a large chunk of shrapnel, growling from the pain he ripped the chunk out making blood squirt out, Nathaniel opened his duffle bag and wrapped the damaged area in sterile bandages. Grabbing his repeater and Ol Painless he took one last look in the direction of the bunker, billows of smoke were visible from the battle, or would it be called a massacre? It didn't matter, if Nathaniel survived this he would get his revenge. He would kill every synth and synth lover in the whole damn Commonwealth. He slung the duffle bag and rifles over his shoulder with some difficulty and limped back towards the Commonwealth, he thought about going back to Sanctuary Hills but he thought against it, he didn't need those settlers, besides they could barely help themselves let alone others. He decided to head to Lexington or perhaps concord or try to get through Cambridge. Yeah Cambridge would do, screw the ferals, he'd kill them all. And so Nathaniel Stark made his trek, bloody, beaten, but not yet broken, to a town where ghouls infested every inch to lay low and lick his wounds. 

He layed low, sneaking down streets, and down infested roads, dodging raider raiding party's and the occasional super mutant raiding groups. He even passed a small greenhouse with a ton of Mr handys attending to some vegetables and fruit. 'Almost to Cambridge, might as well stop and eat and maybe rest.' He limped his way down the path to the greenhouse where a white Mr handy approached him. "Oh hello darling! My name is overseer white, I run this cheery little settlement with the rest of my kind. By chance are you part of the Minutemen?" 'Minutemen?' Nathaniel straightened himself as much as he could, putting on a brave face. "Hello there um overseer, I'm Nathaniel and no I'm not part of the Minutemen. Why would you ask?" The Mr handy seemed to look at Nathaniel up and down, studying him close. "Oh I simply assumed because of your outfit, there was another gentleman wearing a nice blue jumpsuit, somewhat like yours but a whole lot cleaner. He helped us and we joined this Minutemen group, every now and then a group of men with these, laser muskets come by and check in and I assumed you were one of them" Nathaniel was quite surprised now, 'the Minutemen are making a comeback? How long were they at the bunker?' Nathaniel asked a few questions about the Minutemen and how they reformed, overseer White was happy to oblige, telling him all about how this vault dweller named James had recruited a number of settlements across the Commonwealth to join the Minutemen and he even became their general, even going as far to take back some old fort theirs. Nathaniel was shocked but more or less impressed with this vault dweller. Putting this new information aside, he went back to what he was going to ask. "Overseer, if you would be so kind, I need food and water for my trip, I'm heading up to Cambridge." The robot seemed to be shocked by his destination. "Why heavens dear! Why would you go there?! It's full of those dreadfully mutated humans who would kill you in sight!" Nathaniel only seemed to smile at the three huge eye sensors the overseer had. "I know, I plan on holding up there till I'm all healed up." The robot hurried back into the greenhouse but came back shortly with a large bag of corn and tatos and some melons. "I hope this will do then darling." Nathaniel took the bag and made a solum nod the robot. "Thank you" and with that he walked to Cambridge. When he got close, using a less congested road going right behind Cambridge, he couldn't hear anything, until he reached a dark alleyway, he heard voices, human voices talking, one sounded very very familiar but couldn't place it. He followed the voices down the alley when he reached a large junk gate. Nathaniel looked up at the sky and around this junk gate. 'It's past midnight and someone is chatting it up with someone else.' With all his remaining strength Nathaniel knocked hard on the door. "Hello?! Anyone over there?! I'm friendly! Please. Open up." There was silence then the gate opened suddenly and behind it was Recon team Gladius, Paladin Brandis; his hair longer then when Nathaniel had last seen him along with his beard, Paladin Danse, tall man in his trademark set of power armor 'a good and loyal man, completely loyal to the Brotherhood', Knight Rhys a young and ambitious Knight whom Nathaniel hadn't liked so much, 'too rude', Scribe Haylen with her hair stuffed into her scribes hat, and a man in a vault 111 jumpsuit; his hair was a dark yet warm black, he wore heavy leather to protect himself and had a trimmed beard. One thing Nathaniel noticed was, they we're all aiming at him. "Who goes there?!" Paladin Brandis barked, Nathaniel only smiled "I found you...." and with that Nathaniel collapsed into the dirt....drifting back into the dark one more time.


	10. Chapter 10

Fallout: Steel in the Commonwealth   
Chapter 10  
Another nightmare, just like the ones he had before. He was in the citadel during the battle for the citadel, running; running to Sarah, running to the hope he could save her this time. It was like he was living the whole battle over again. The sounds of laser and gunfire, the screams of the dying, the harsh smell of gun powder and blood, and his nose and throats were burning from the smoke. That's when he saw the scene all over again, Casdin firing his plasma rifle and Sarah being blown back, her power armor chestplate bursting apart, her helmet rolling away, a steady pool of blood creeping around her. It was like it was all happening in slow motion. Nathaniel turned to look away only to see the same scene behind him, he tried running away but it was like he couldn't move. Then he saw himself running up to Sarah, ripping her out of the armor and cradling her, Casdin kneeling beside them trying to apologize, and Nathaniel mercilessly shooting the man in the head killing him. "You let her die! You failed her! You failed! You couldn't save your dad, you couldn't save Sarah and you can't even safe yourself!" A voice called out to him, booming loudly. It was Edens voice; the former enclave AI president that wanted to poison the Capitol wasteland, the same whom Nathaniel convinced to blow up Raven Rock and itself. Then he was falling, he back in the Commonwealth, falling off a very tall building, a building with the initials MF. Right when he was about to slam into the hard concrete road he lurched forward gasping for air. He looked around in the room he was in, it was a office, he was laying on a sleeping bag, all his clothes besides his underwear were off, his wounds bandaged yet still aching and even one of the bandages was almost soaked through. 'Where am I?' He tried to stand up only to feel a sharp pain in his side, sending him flopping back to the hard floor. "Fuck!!" He tried to sit up again, only his arms were weak and shaking uncontrollably. He layed back down. "Hello?! Anyone?!" He heard the door open and two men came in, one was the vault dweller from 111 and the other was Paladin Danse, "sentinel. It's great that your awake, we were worried that you wouldn't." Nathaniel adjusted himself, rolling slightly to look at the towering giant of a man. "Yeah I'm awake as ill ever be. Where am I?" Danse kneeled in front of Nathaniel, your in the Cambridge police department. We put you in the police commissioners office, Scribe Haylen and I have been visiting you for the past 5 days." '5 days?!?!' Nathaniel's eyes went wide and tried to get up only to get to his feet, feel light headed and fall almost hitting a hardwood desk. Just when he was about to crash his head into it the vault dweller grabbed him and gently leaned him against the wall. "Easy there buddy, your dehydrated and still really weak." Danse nodded and stepped forward "affirmative sentinel, your in no shape to fight let alone fight." Nathaniel looked from Danse to the dweller "so your the vault dweller. General of the Minutemen, and the 'silver shroud' " Nathaniel said to the man. The dweller smiled politely "that's me, glad to know I'm famous haha" Danse put his hand on the Dwellers shoulder "sentinel stark id like to introduce you to James Buchanan, he's our newest member to the brotherhood. He helped find Paladin brandis and saved me and the team." Nathaniel smirked "it's a pleasure. It took me 3 months and 5 weeks to find you haha" Nathaniel laughed but when he laughed he felt as if his entire chest and gut were about to explode causing him to groan in pain and go into a coughing fit. James kneeled next to Nathaniel, pulled out a syringe and injected it into his arm. "Here have some MedX, it'll help." It did help, but not much. Nathaniel nodded in gratitude to the Sole survivor. "James, you are standing in the presence of the brotherhoods greatest friend and soldier, took on a entire vault full of mutants single handedly and won, and even beat the enclave twice. He's the hero of the Capitol, hell; he's the damn messiah down there! He is magnificent lone wanderer." James seemed surprised and looked at Nathaniel closely. "I heard a bit about him. Are the rumors and story's about you true?" Nathaniel groaned as he adjusted himself, "it's all true, every bit, but I'm not magnificent, I was never magnificent. I did what I thought was right, and lost my whole family doing so, I'm no hero. Maybe one day I'll tell you all about my experiences but for right now....that's a story for another day..." Nathaniel turned his head to look at Danse "Paladin, I'd like to report my experiences and I'd like to hear yours." Danse nodded and looked at James. "Initiate. Please wait outside. Me and the sentinel will be done soon." James looked at Danse and Nathaniel, shrugged and walked out of the room. Nathaniel and Danse told each other about their experiences, after it was done Danses face was a mixture of sympathy and loss. Danse had been close with the pride. Especially Glade and Colvin. "I'm.... so sorry Sentinel." Nathaniel lowered his head, clenching his fist. "I'm sorry too Danse.." Danse stood up and looked at Nathaniel. "Damn synths! I hope the brotherhood comes here. I want to wipe out those abominations!" Nathaniel looked at Danse, his look of pure lust for vengeance and determination. "Me too Danse. I'll make them pay...." and with that Nathaniel looked away, staring at nothing in particular. Thinking. About everything. "Let me know if you need anything, anything at all." Danse said and left the room. Leaving Nathaniel alone. Nathaniel was angry, angry at the institute for killing his friends, angry at this damn Commonwealth for its harshness, and most of all angry at himself, for volunteering his team for this mission. The only consolation was; he was safe and in good hands. 'Soon I'm gonna be healed up and when I am I'm going to find the institute and kill every last one of those monsters. That's a promise.....'


	11. Chapter 11

Fallout: Steel in the Commonwealth   
Chapter 11  
He layed In the office, reading. He had to hand it to the Recon team, they did manage to collect a handy collection of books. Already he had read 15 of the collected 30. He was halfway through The Art of War when he heard a knock on the door to the quaint little office he was laying in. "Come in." He said continuing his reading. The door opened and a woman in a red leather coat and press hat waltzed in, a pen and a notepad in her hands and a 10 Mil on her hip. "Hello. I'm Piper Wright from Publik Occurrences in Diamond City, if your up to it I'd like to ask you some questions about your time here in the Commonwealth and the Capitol Wasteland." Nathaniel folded a corner of the book and layed it down onto the stack of other books. "Sure Ms. Wright. Have a seat, so your the lady writing and making trouble in Diamond City that I heard about when I visited." Piper smiled and shrugged "i either find trouble or trouble finds me." Nathaniel actually laughed at that. It reminded him so much of himself, it reminded him of a young 19 year old boy always seeming to find trouble in a harsh new world. "Thank you Ms Wright for making this bed ridden sack of shit feel a bit happier. And by the way its republic.." piper cocked her head in confusion. "What?" Nathaniel smirked and adjusted himself so he sat up a bit more. "You said Capitol Wasteland, it's actually a full fledge government." Piper chuckled a little bit "I'm sorry, everyone calls it a wasteland still, any who, are you ready to answer some questions?" Nathaniel smiled politely "go ahead Ms Wright" for the next couple hours Nathaniel talked about his past experiences in the Capitol, how he purified all the water, how he met a talking tree named Harold....or was it Herbert, how he befriended a coven of 'vampires' and outcasts in a metro, or a super mutant named uncle Leo who gave Nathaniel the shirt off his back and tried to give him the moon. Piper took in all the information like a child listening to a grandparents stories. "Holy shit, and I thought me and James's adventures had been crazy. Would you mind if we did a series on you. I'm sure everyone in the Commonwealth would love to hear about the lone wanderer. It would also help keep McDonough off my back and keep him from shutting down my printing press." Nathaniel smiled at piper, something about her was likable, she reminded him of himself when he was younger; wanting truth and justice, doing anything for family and friends, not caring about who she hurt as long as she got the truth out. "I might actually enjoy that Ms. Wright. I need something to do haha" Piper seemed very excited about Nathaniel agreeing. "Thank you. I can't guarantee I'll be here all the time to do the series, me and James are about to leave again, we've been helping the Minutemen rally settlements and we just got a clue on finding Nick Valentine." Nathaniel recalled Pipers paper when he was in Diamond City, 'I hope they find Nick, for a synth he's good. A good man and clever one at that.' "So your sister... she was the girl handing out papers?" Nathaniel said getting off subject. Piper smirked "yeah that's my little sis nat, I keep her at the office to keep the business running and so she won't get into as much trouble as me." She said with a laugh. Nathaniel nodded, "are you the only two? No mom or Dad? No uncles or anything?" Piper seemed to slump a little in the chair "yeah me and nat are on our own, my folks died a while ago, I don't want to talk about it, and the only other family I know of is my uncle. I think he's in the Capitol Wastel- I mean Republic" Nathaniel nodded again. "I may have run into him most likely, he have a name or any things that set him apart?" Piper crossed her legs and thought for a bit. "Well he was my uncle on my moms side, one thing he and my mom had was a slight Irish accent, we used to pick on mom about it. We only saw him in pictures. Oh and I think his name was James. That help in any way?" Nathaniel's eyes were wide now, Irish accent and James 'that couldn't be, but it does ring bells' Nathaniel knew his fathers gruff Irish accent. Gruff and yet comforting. "Do you...do you by chance have a picture of your uncle?" Piper frowned and sifted through her pockets finally finding a small stack of photos. "Here's all the ones we had in our old house." Nathaniel took the photos and sifted through them, looking at their faces, none were entirely catching his eye...until, the very last picture. The last picture showed a brother and sister in a pose, one arm over each other's shoulders, the women looked to be in her early 20s same with the man, the man had combed clean hair and a striking handsome face. 'Dad?' It was James Starks face he saw in the picture. It was his fathers face.


	12. Chapter 12

Fallout: Steel in the Commonwealth   
Chapter 12  
Nathaniel's experience in the Commonwealth had been very interesting, interesting enough that he could wright 2 maybe 3 books about it, a crazy junkie lady seeing the future, A complete synth assault, a garden run by robots, and now finding his cousin. His father never talked about his family besides his mother, Nathaniel layed against the hard wood of the office, 'was it normal to be completely shocked beyond words?' This was his family? 2 girls in Diamond City were his cousins. He had something to call family, he had family. Then why wasn't he happy?why wasn't he relieved? Piper looked at him concerned "something wrong?" Nathaniel shook off his thoughts and looked at piper, "well I do know him. I know him very well or well I did." Piper seemed eager now, "you know me uncle?! What's he like? Where is he? How do you know him?!" Nathaniel smiled at Piper, " I know him because....because he was my dad." Once Nathaniel said that, there was only silence between the two, piper sat in her chair her jaw hanging open. "He's your..dad?! So that makes us..." Nathaniel nodded "cousins" Nathaniel smiled at Piper, hoping to reassure her, piper actually seemed to be quite surprised by this information, more so than he was. "Holy. Shit. I don't know whether I should be happy or should I keep questioning." Nathaniel put his hand on her leg and patted it, "I know, I'm the same way right now haha, it does feel good to know I do have family out here at least." Piper looked Nathaniel and put her pen and paper down, next thing Nathaniel knew she was hugging him tightly. "This is great. I thought me and nat were alone but..here you are." Nathaniel hugged back patting her on the back, piper broke off the hug and smiled at Nathaniel. The door at the front opened and closed, soon following there was the sound of heavy foot steps with normal footsteps. 'Danse and James in assuming', not long after he heard the footsteps James walked in and put his arm on pipers shoulder. "Hey piper we got to head out. We need to head to Diamond City and get some things then head to the commons." Piper nodded and hugged Nathaniel one more time. "I hope to see ya see Nathaniel. Don't eat yourself killed" Nathaniel smiled "sometimes I find trouble and other times trouble finds me" piper laughed and walked out of the room. James smiled as she left and kneeled in front of Nathaniel, "we're about to head out, if Danse hasn't told you I'm-" "looking for your son Shaun. I know" Nathaniel said with a smirk. James seemed shocked "did you read pipers article about me? How'd you know?" Nathaniel smiled broadly I heard about ya from your pal Preston. I know your pressed for time James so I'll come right out and say it. I know you've been through hell, so when you find that son of a bitch that took your son, you kill that bastard. Salt the earth of him. Raise your boy right and keep doing what you have been doing, keep making this land better. Do a good turn daily my friend." James seemed shocked by Nathaniel's statement. He looked at the wounded sentinel and nodded, outstretching his hand for a handshake. "It's been a pleasure Nathaniel, and don't worry I will." Nathaniel didn't say anything more, he simply nodded and watched as the Commonwealths hero walk out the door and out the door of the police station.   
The next few days dragged on, by day 5 of his bed rest and being cooped up in the office, he had read all the 30 books that the entire Recon team had collected in the Commonwealth. He was bored out of his mind. He wanted to run, he wanted to do anything, he even wanted to go outside and at the least smell the crisp Boston air, but he wasn't allowed to, scribe Haylen told him repeatedly that he needed to stay bedridden till he was completely healed. 'Screw that, I'm perfectly fine, I've suffered worse.' And now that Nathaniel could walk a bit without face planting, he started to pace the office, reading books and walking exercising his legs, making them back to their full strength. Haylen didn't like him walking, saying the same old shit "your not completely healed yet sir, you need to rest" 'blah blah blah, I'm fine, and since when did a scribe start ordering a Sentinel?' Pain in the ass as Haylen was, Nathaniel respected her. She was a tough gal, and didn't care about rank when it came to concerns of safety. He liked that and so did the rest of the team here. Finally Haylen didn't say anything about Nathaniel walking around one day. She simply rolled her eyes and leaned against the doorframe. Nathaniel smiled "what? Your not gonna lecture me today?" The young scribe simply smiled and rolled her eyes and walked out of sight.  
The next morning, Nathaniel found his clothes neatly folded and stacked on the desk that was in front of his sleeping bag. He stood and examined them, the blood stains had been cleaned as best they could from the duster, he turned it over and was welcomed with a wonderful surprise, on the back of the duster three numbers were painted onto the leather, three numbers and a symbol around it. The numbers 101 shone brightly yellow in the brown duster, the symbol around the numbers was a giant Cog. A vault door. As he moved the duster a note fell out. The note read simply "had to leave to go get some tech with Danse, I cleaned your cloths as best as I could and did some repairs to your pip boy, but your vault jumpsuit was too torn up to clean or fix, so here's me making it up to you you stubborn son of a bitch. Signed Scribe Haylen" Nathaniel laughed and out the note and duster down and looked at the other clothes. The next bit of clothing was a brotherhood uniform, a simple black jumpsuit, mainly used as a undershirt for brotherhood grunts or lancers, and the last bit was a set of heavy leather armor, deep pocketed and reinforced; the chest piece branded with the trademark brotherhood symbol. Next to the armor was a pair of boots, deathclaw leather, polished. Nathaniel smiled and put his clothes on, strapping on his holster that carried his scoped .44 , throwing on his duster. Just as he was about to leave the room he stopped and turned around. 'My pip boy.' On the filing cabinet was his signature pip boy 3000 the one he had never been without since he was 10. He opened up the latch, rolling up his sleeve of his duster and brotherhood uniform and placed it on his left arm, feeling the worn cushioned inside run across his arm, he closed the latch, locking it in place. This felt way better now. He flicked the power on and watched the starting up sequence till finally everything came back, his biometric scanner inside it was working 100%, GPS 100% and radio scanner worked 100%. Nathaniel smiled and walked out of the office. He looked around and saw that Haylen and Danse were still out and Knight Rhys was laying in a sleeping bag in the far corner near a busted in wall snoring so loud that even the ghouls up the road might hear. He chuckled a little and went behind the counter, finding a scrap of paper and a ancient prewar pencil and wrote a note back to Haylen. "Thank you Haylen, I love the duster and thanks for fixing my pip boy, I'm gonna go on a walk for a bit, scout around, I'll be back soon. Maybe. Signed: a stubborn son of a bitch" he placed the paper next to Haylens terminal. He walked once more back into the office and picked up his dufflebag, torn and ragged from the battle but luckily his equipment was still mainly intact. He examined Ol Painless and Lincolns repeater, putting them back in as well as a few cans cram and 3 nuka colas. Danse and the team were nice and very hospitable, that wasn't why he was leaving. He had a wasteland soul, he needed to scout around. He would be back soon. He looked back one more time and walked out of the police station and headed out into Cambridge.


	13. Chapter 13

Fallout: Steel in the Commonwealth   
Chapter 13  
Cambridge was dead, besides local wildlife and the occasional raider and super mutant the whole town was quiet. He passed a pile of dead raiders, all of which had their throats slashed and some more brutally cut up than others, and beside the body's was a small calling card all saying "come find me" 'no thank you, I don't need to find creeps or serial killers. He kept walking, checking every alley and open door or window, his rifle Ol Painless at the ready. He finally reached the end of the road, there was a draw bride halfway up so it was technically the end of this road, he turned and down the perpendicular road reaching the front of the C.I.T ruins, a gigantic white building, the epitome of higher education for geniuses. Nathaniel thought about going inside and maybe getting some of the books inside but thought against it. 'Maybe later' he turned and looked at the river that separated him from Boston. He could hear gunshots and gunfire from the city, 'the difference between here and the city is appalling. Quiet here and all out war for survival over there.'   
He kept walking until he reached the urban areas of Cambridge. It was relatively quiet and danger free until he saw a giant crater, not a huge huge crater like the ones in DC but big enough to vaporize a entire building or two. Nathaniel crouched and sneakily climbed up a fire escape of a apartment building, getting a nice view of the crater. It was full of ferals, all laying in it and soaking up its radiation. Among the normal ones there was a bloated glowing one. Lazily trudging through water then stopping and turning around and walking back, 'glowing ones. Like a medic for ferals, anytime one dies or is wounded all it has to do is raise its arms in the air and shoot a blast of radiation and boom it's like they were never dead.' Nathaniel snuck back down the fire escape and continued his trek around Cambridge. Finally he reached the main road leading into Cambridge and started his trek up the road. Like Cambridge it was dead quiet up until a group of raiders stopped him at a old military checkpoint. "Yo! Hold up! This is a toll road fuck head!" Nathaniel kept his hands on his rifle, his finger on the trigger. "Oh I'm sorry, I'm new to the area, what's the cost?" Nathaniel counted the raiders, 15, the leader wore a assault gas mask, heavy combat armor over road leathers. The raider leader shifted his weight from one leg to another. "250 caps! Plus any ammo or chems you got." Nathaniel propped his rifle on one shoulder, pulling out a large pouch of caps from his duffel. "Here you go sir, a little extra for safe passage." The raider leader lowered his gun and seemed eager yet cautious. "Toss to me, just keep your distance and toss it over!" Nathaniel shrugged and smiled "as you wish." Nathaniel tossed the large pouch into the air. As the pouch was halfway into the air Nathaniel lowers his rifle and fired 3 rounds at the raiders. Directly hitting 2 raiders, one in the chest the other right in the face. The raider leader dove behind cover along with his crew, they began to open fire at Nathaniel. Nathaniel smirked and rolled behind a tree, he threw off his duffle and went prone, crawling until one raider was in his sights, he fired blowing the raiders brains out. The raiders concentrated fire on Nathaniel's prone body, he rolled back behind the tree. He started to rummage through his duffle, finding his bouquet of frag grenades. He grabbed 2, popped the pins and threw both at the raiders. Some of the raiders screamed and tried to get away but were ultimately turned into chunks of meat. While others who tried to flee Nathaniel picked off quickly from behind his tree. "COME ON OUT ASSHOLE, WE HAVE YOU OUTGUNNED" Nathaniel laughed. "I just took out half your grew with 2 grenades and 8 bullets! It doesn't matter if you have me outgunned! Oh and word of advice...I've only got 5 bullets left so your gonna have to share!" The raider leader growled and fired some more. Nathaniel held his position behind the tree, Nathaniel peeked quickly behind the tree, managing to get the position of a few raiders before having to duck again. He grabbed another grenade, cooked it, then three it into the middle of the checkpoint. Hearing the groaning and growling of the raiders Nathaniel sprinted from cover to cover while they were distracted. "WHERED THAT FUCKER GO?!" One raider yelled out. Nathaniel snuck behind him and tapped him on the shoulder with the barrel of his rifle. "Pssst. Behind you..." the raider turned too late, Nathaniel fired his rifle completely obliterating the raiders skull, sending blood, brains, and skull fragments everywhere. Another raider ran out of ammo and charged at Nathaniel with a machete. "IM GONNA SKIN YOU ALIVE!!" Nathaniel chuckled and fired, pegging the raider in the chest. Nathaniel dove behind a military barricade, "when this meeting first started there were 15. Now there's only you and one more! I'll give you a chance to run away!" The leader growled again, grabbing a psycho injector and drove it into his arm. "FUCKING KILL!!!" And fired more and more at the barricade. Nathaniel sighed "they never run." He said to himself. As he was planning to make his move the second to last raider hopped over the barricade, a Chinese officer sword in one hand and a switchblade in the other. Nathaniel fired at the mans leg, turning the mans knee into a bloody pulp. 'They get so desperate' the raider kept his hands clenched on his weapons and began to crawl to Nathaniel. "I'm...gonna kill you...you fuck." Nathaniel rolled his eyes and leveled the rifle at the mans head and pulled the trigger. "Look, it's just you and me! I've got one bullet left and I doubt you have that much either. Just give up!" There was silence for a bit until the raider went back to firming. "NEVER!" Then after about 5 rounds he could hear the distinctive clicking of a empty gun. Nathaniel smiled and stood up from behind his cover. "You should have run when you could." He charged at the boss, tackling him to the ground and began to punch and slam his rifle butt against the mans skull and ribs. The boss shoved Nathaniel off and tried to reach one of his fallen crew members guns. Nathaniel leveled his rifle, shooting a hole in the mans knee, making him tumble down the ground. The man got on his knees and pulled off his gas mask, showing off the bruised and bloody face underneath, his eyes were wide with fear. Hell, Nathaniel could already smell the piss running down the mans legs. "Please man...I'll go...I'll get out of the Commonwealth! Please....please! Please don't kill me!" The man raised his hands in the air to shield himself. Nathaniel shifted weight from one leg to the other. "Thing is....I specifically gave you that option when I was being generous. Now...well. Not so much." Before the raider could even think Nathaniel slammed the butt of his rifle against the raiders head making the raider fall and land onto his back, Nathaniel stood over him and continued slamming the butt of the rifle down hard onto the raiders skull, he didn't stop until he was out of breath and there wasn't a skull anymore. Nathaniel spit on the raiders corpse and walked over to his comrades bodies, picking up spare ammo and any stimpaks he could find that weren't that damaged. He grabbed one raiders rifle and checked the clip, empty, he pulled back the lever, popping out a single .308 round Nathaniel caught it midair and slid it into his rifle in one whole move. "At least I got one bullet back from you junkies." He walked back to the duffle bag, putting up the grenade bouquet and picked out the pouch of caps. Nathaniel looked around at the carnage and how noticeably quiet it immediately got after the fight. He looked at the pouch of caps and happily tossed it up in the air and caught it. "Whelp, let's get back on schedule." He checked his pip boy map. Looking and saw a small icon of a vault door. Ever since he downloaded the locations of every vault in the nation on his pip boy from the vault-tec mainframe he got small icons on their locations. 'Hmmmm a vault. Vault 81. Let's give it a visit.' And so he kept walking down the road, stepping over the bodies of the raiders, making his way to vault 81. Unknown to Nathaniel... he was being watched.....


	14. Chapter 14

Fallout: Steel in the Commonwealth   
Chapter 14  
When he entered the city, Nathaniel became very cautious. The city was a 24 hour war zone. Teeming with raiders, super mutants and the ruthless gunners. Nathaniel crouched and kept walking, he passed a clothing store turned into a raider den, right past that he saw the aftermath of a drug deal gone bad; 5 bodies sprawled onto the road, empty boxes which Nathaniel assumed is where the chems were stored. Nathaniel checked their bodies for any ammo and came up unsuccessful. He pressed on, staying close to the waterfront in case he needed to made a quick escape. Nathaniel looked up into the sky and saw that it was getting late, the sun was already setting, he needed to find shelter of some sort, he looked around and decided to take a abandoned alley for the night. The alley was closed off on one side with rubble, there was nothing in particular that was interesting. He layed his gear in the corner of the alley and layed down looking up at the sky. Watching the yellow sky change to orange then red and finally dark. He unholstered his pistol and kept a hand on it. 'At night the wasteland is a whole new place.' He kept watching the stars until finally he dosed off. This night he didn't have a nightmare. Nathaniel woke up right before dawn actually feeling refreshed. Normally he would wake from a nightmare and couldn't be able to go back to sleep, scared he would have another one, he patted himself down, grabbed his gear and headed back out. As he was about to leave the city outskirts, passing a destroyed neighborhood. He heard them. Super mutants. It was hard not to hear a mutant coming. Between their loud groaning, their smell, or their loud and pronounced footsteps it was hard to get snuck up on by them. He took cover behind one destroyed house, only a partial wall was his cover, the rest of the house was nothing but rubble. He pulled out Lincolns repeater and aimed it at the mutants, being sure to stay hidden he observed the mutants. 5, 1 leader fully clothed in metal and scrap armor, the others varied. But there was one that stood out; a lone mutant, its head was wrapped in chains and in one arm it held a mini nuke. Nathaniel was tempted to just leave it be and sneak out but he thought against it. 'I remember those bastards, one little pop and the whole group goes up.' He smiled mischievously and aimed the repeater at the suicider and fired. Before the mutants could react the entire group went up in a miniature mushroom cloud. Nathaniel grinned and continued his journey to this vault 81, this time a little less cautious. Not long later he arrived at the vault. The vault was inside a small cave, around the cave entrance it looked as if no one had been here for a bit. Besides some prewar junk such as rusted out cars and old crates. There was also little scrap wood shacks with moldy mattresses, a small cooking station and a charred area where a campfire had been. 'People have been here. Possibly traders.' He shrugged it off and went inside. The interior of the cave was well lit. He crossed the walkway and plugged in his pip boy and pressed the door release button only to be stopped by a voice. "Halt! I don't care if you have a pip boy. What do you want outsider?" Nathaniel was taken back by the voice. 'Outsider? Could the people inside actually be vault dwellers?' "I'm just a simple wanderer looking to do some trading, after that I'll leave." There was a pause, "do you have any spare fusion cores? We need 4 of them. That's your ticket in outsider. No exceptions!" Nathaniel pulled out his duffle bag and set it on a nearby desk and filed through his spare ammo, he picked up 4 out of his collected 20 and went back to the vault door controls. 'Eh, its only 4 I'll get some more soon' "I have the fusion cores you want to open up?" Not long after he said that the vault door opened, Nathaniel picked up his duffle and walked up the stairs and down the platform to meet a handful of guards and a slightly pudgy women whom he assumed was the overseer. "Hello outsider, thank you for these fusion cores. I'm Gwen McNamara, I'm the overseer of vault 81." Nathaniel looked around, noticing that the inside of the vault was clean looking. The equipment looked brand new, floors seemed polished, hell, their vault suits seemed new. "Hello Overseer, I wanted to ask permission to trade in the vault. I'll be in and out of your hair in no time." Nathaniel said with a polite smile. The overseer looked him over some and put on a polite smile right back at Nathaniel. "You have my permission, the general store is down the elevator to your right, but please don't wander beyond that." Nathaniel nodded and walked towards the elevator noticing every guards cautious looks toward him. He stepped into the elevator and descended to the lower levels. When he got out he was astounded by the looks of the vault. The whole vault seemed to teem with life, there were old people, young people, fat people, people of all sorts living it up here in the vault. Nathaniel went to the right and went to the store. The women behind the counter didn't seemed fazed by a outsider in her store. "Hello there. Welcome to my little store. What'll it be?" Nathaniel had tons of questions he wanted to ask; how had this vault survived this long? Why was she unfazed of outsiders while others seemed super cautious? He held these questions in, "hey do you have any ammo?" The woman behind the counter reached under and pulled out 5 different boxes, 1 was 10mm, another .38, 5.56, and the last was .308. "Which do you need?" Nathaniel poked the .308 box. "I'll take as much as there is." The woman tallied up the cost and looked back at Nathaniel "that'll be 300 caps." Nathaniel placed the same large pouch of caps he tossed to the raiders. "There should be 300 plus a little extra." The woman handed him all the .308 which Nathaniel found out was at least 500 rounds. 'What a deal' he was about to walk out when the lady asked him a question. "Um if I may ask...why is there blood on this pouch? And why is there a bullet in this cap?" She held up a single cap with a round perfectly stuck through it. Nathaniel smiled and took the cap. Looking at it from one side to the other before tossing it back to the lady and flashing her a big smile. "Frankly ma'am I have no idea on either account. I'm sorry." And with that he tipped his hat and was back in the elevator without a second thought. He left the vault without another word. 'Nice place. It reminds me a bit of vault 101 back home.' He stopped right outside of the vault door. 'Home' he sighed and looked down. How long had he been away from there? Would he ever see it again? He didn't know for certain, all that mattered now was him, his guns and a pocketful of caps.


	15. Chapter 15

Fallout: Steel in the Commonwealth   
Chapter 15  
Does a hero of the people have regrets? If so Nathaniel had a ton. Why have regrets in this dog eat dog world? In Nathaniel's experience those who are good don't stay that way, either they die or fall from good and become what they hated. Had that happened to Nathaniel? Had he become nothing better than the raiders? Had this world corrupted him? 'You either die a hero or survive to become the bad guy' Nathaniel pondered this. He thought about home, he thought about the 19 year old idiot that saw this new world with fresh eyes. He thought about how naïve he was. 'That stupid kid.' So did Nathaniel have regrets? Yes. He regretted helping the ghouls get into Tenpenny tower, he regretted not saying more to his dad, and most importantly he regretted not being able to save Sarah. Nathaniel looked up at the sky, black clouds were heading this way, a storm was coming, he decided to lay low in one of the shacks in front of the vault. He layed on the moldy mattress inside and looked up at the sky as the storm hit the Commonwealth, the rain was soothing to him, the simple sound of the piter pater of rain on the tin roof of the shack made it feel a little like home but the more he thought about home, the more he missed it, he missed Fawks, he missed Megaton, hell he even missed Harold the tree. He hoped piper and James were okay, even though Nathaniel barely knew them he felt a certain kinship to them. With James he identified with losing a wife and searching for the one you love, he respected him, his exploits made him a person o interest to Nathaniel. With Piper he saw himself in her, he saw his father in her, and like him; like his dad she had suffered pains for being the hero. He hoped he would see piper, nat, James and all his friends again soon. He layed against the wood of the shack and closed his eyes. Praying, praying that one day he would go home, praying for piper and James, and praying for vengeance on the institute for butchering his friends. He soon fell asleep, listening to the gentle sounds of raindrops and distant gunfire.   
He awoke smelling smoke of a campfire. The rain had stopped but the earthy smell lingered in the air. He stepped outside and noticed figures all around him, one feature about them was their piercing yellow eyes. Nathaniel realized that he was surrounded by synths, all had their laser rifles and pistols trained on him. Nathaniel growled and raised his hands into the air surrendering. "I surrender you bastards just kill me quickly" the synths didn't move, they stood in place. "That will not be necessary Mr Stark. Actually we've come to offer a deal." A voice said in the darkness, a familiar voice. A man stepped forward into the light so Nathaniel could see this mysterious man. " I believe you remember me? If not let me reintroduce myself. I'm Dr Zimmer and I'm from the institute."


	16. Chapter 16

Fallout: Steel in the Commonwealth   
Chapter 16  
He remembered Zimmer, a pretentious, snobby prick who acted like he had the largest brain in the whole damn world. Always gloating about the institute and it's advanced technology, hell 10 years ago Zimmer offered Nathaniel a Cybernetic enhancement if he would find a missing Gen 3 that had run off to make a new life for itself. The RailRoad gave him a piece of the synth and told Nathaniel to lie to Zimmer by telling him the synth had been destroyed. Needless to say Zimmer left the Capitol without his Synth and a new found hatred for the Capitol and its hero. He looked at the elderly gentleman standing before him, the man still looked as if it were still 10 years ago. 'He hasn't aged a damn day' Nathaniel glanced around him and took a step forward. "I remember Doctor, and may I add that I don't appreciate you waking me up and having all these machines pointing rifles at me." The old man smirked and snapped his fingers, instantly the synths lowered their weapons and stared at Nathaniel, those metallic yellow eyes glowing in the dark, piercing him from all angles. "My apologies Mr Stark, you're a hard man to find and arrange a meeting. We tried to talk to you at Diamond City, and again at Sanctuary Hills but you've been a busy bee. Running around, that was a nasty mess you did at that checkpoint." 'They were watching me?!' Nathaniel tried to keep his composure, "well my nick name is the lone wanderer. I tend to wander." The aged doctor smiled and chuckled to himself. "Indeed Mr Stark, it's been some time since we talked. 10 years or so wasn't it?" Nathaniel put on a polite smile. "Yes sir. You said you had a deal for me?" The Doctor put his hand up and waved off the question as if it where a gnat. "In due time Mr Stark, but first tell me. Did you learn a lesson?" Nathaniel cocked his head. Slowly placing his hand in his revolver. "Uh what lesson? I don't recall being taught anything." The old doctor snapped his fingers again and flashed Nathaniel a serpent like smile. Instantly two synths that were behind him grabbed his arms and forcefully pushed him to his knees. He tried to fight and get them off but their metallic fingers only dug deeper into his soft scarred skin. He glared and looked up at Zimmer who now was right in front of him, the fire now made his features almost hellish. His face was almost completely black besides the dark orange glare on his glasses from the fire light. "The simple lesson that you do not cross the institute. This has been a long time coming. After that whole incident at that scrap heap known as Rivet City. I had a few informants that told me a very interesting story." Nathaniel gave a defiant smile. "Oh really. I sure do love stories." Zimmer gave a smirk and snapped his fingers again. A synth walked behind Nathaniel and hit him in the back with a shock baton. Nathaniel growled in pain, feeling the electricity run through him, it made it feel as if his skin was burning off. "The story was Mr Stark, that you helped a agent of the Railroad in tricking me. Costing me a prototype 3rd generation Synth. So after the institute heard you and your pathetic little squad had entered the Commonwealth looking for some lost patrol, I asked Father if lethal force could be used on them, but only sparring you. And it went without a hitch. Now your here. Alone. In OUR playground now." Nathaniel stared at the old doctor. His eyes wide with shock. He clenched his fists and went back to resisting gnashing at the synths. ' he killed them? He killed them!!' "You fucking bastard!! I'll kill you!!" The doctor chuckled "Simply business, I do wish there was another way but this worked amazingly well for us. Now back to your question..." the old doctor kneeled in front of Nathaniel and grabbed his chin, ensuring that Nathaniel was completely looking at him. "You work for the institute as our new agent. And Father and the institute will ensure continued stability of your pathetic nation plus many more benefits. Hell as long as your brotherhood of Steel stay in that wasteland they won't be destroyed we'll spare them." Nathaniel spit at Zimmer and laughed. "You kill my friends and beat the shit out of me and threaten me. What makes you think I would want to join you? Besides, don't you already have a agent. Kellogg right?" Zimmer wiped the spit from his face, and looked at Nathaniel stepping back a few paces. "Kellogg is a liability, too blunt, too brutal in tactics. You would make a far better agent; and because, we can give you something that you lost. Something you desperately want back." Nathaniel gave his defiant smile. "Oh yeah? What exactly is that?" Zimmer stepped back a bit more and snapped his fingers. To Nathaniel's right he saw three shadows move up the road, staying out of the firelight. "See for yourself Mr Stark." He grabbed one of the shadows and brought it into the light. Instantly Nathaniel lost all his fight. He didn't even realize that the synths had let him go. He just kept his eyes on who was standing in front of him, her golden hair, her beautiful eyes. A picture perfect imagine that had been burned forever into his memories for the past 5 years. "Mr Stark, im sure your familiar with Mrs. Sarah Stark.."


End file.
